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Make It an Artisan Handmade Christmas - Week 8 Favorites - 2025

Posted November 4, 2025

 

 

The weeks are going by so, so fast!  Week 8 of the Countdown to Christmas 2025 has already come and gone, with only four more weeks remaining!  The ever ticking Your Christmas Countdown Clock doesn’t let up - according to it, Santa and his flying reindeer will start their journey in only 50 days!  Yikes!!!!  Need a perfect place to start / finish your Christmas shopping? The Countdown - a place for artists to come together and share three of their unique gifts - is the just the place to do that holiday shopping!  Julie and Harry of Blue Morning Expressions are hosting the twelve-week Countdown to Christmas of artisan handmade items on their Buy Handmade from Makers blog (where you can also see the first seven Countdowns).  This week, 30 items, many which are one of a kind designs, from 10 artists are featured.  The artists shared a wide range of handmade gift ideas: jewelry, lampwork beads, art prints, throw pillows, home decor, keychains, baby gifts, and much, much more.  A wonderful motto to follow: SHOP EARLY, SHOP OFTEN!  And, most of all, SHOP HANDMADE to support hard working indie artists! 

 

In addition to promoting each handmade item from the Countdown collection to my "Countdown to a Handmade Christmas 2025" Pinterest board and on my Twitter feed, I decided to share one item from each of the artists who participated this week.  

 

 

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» Tagged: baby gift, bison wall art, Christmas, Christmas gifts, Christmas gifts for women, Christmas necklace, Countdown to Christmas, crescent moon necklace, crochet, doves, earrings, flower, folk art, free, hand painted pendant, handmade, handmade Christmas gifts, handmade earrings, Hanukkah, home decor, ibis, ibis print, inspirational, Italy, keychain, lampwork beads, lampwork flower beads, lampwork glass beads, moon, pearls, photography, purple thistle, red garnet, Shadow Dog Designs, ShadowDogDesigns, St Francis necklace, St Nick pendant, table runner, throw pillow, watercolor print, wildflower keychain, wolf, Yellowstone bison

Countdown to Christmas 2016 - Week 2 - Italy

Posted September 26, 2016

Carved life size presepe, Santa Maria d'Aracoeli Presepe Christmas Day Rome, 2012; photo by Margot Balboni

 
 

Traditionally, Christmas in Italy is celebrated over several weeks, from December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, until January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.  On St. Nicholas Day, children write letters to St Nicholas asking for gifts and they hang up either a sock or put a plate on the table on the eve of Nicholas Day’s.  If the children have been good throughout the last year, they will get some fruits, nuts and sweets from St. Nicholas while the naughty ones will also get a sweet, but one looking like lump of coal. The main gift giving day is January 6 - the day on which the Wise Men brought their gifts to the Christ Child.

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» Tagged: Blue Morning Expressions, BlueMorningExpressions, Christmas, Countdown, Feast of the Epiphany, gift ideas, gifts, handmade, Indiemade, Italy, presepe, Shadow Dog Designs, ShadowDogDesigns, shopping, zampognari

Colorful Doors to Adventure

Posted July 7, 2016

 

 

As long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with unique doors, whether they are ancient, colorful or beautifully carved . . . or all three at once.  An urge to see what lays beyond the door comes over me, what adventures are beyond.  Needless to say, I have a Pinterest board dedicated to doors, gates and windows - but mostly doors seem to get pinned.  This blog post is dedicated to 15 of my most favorite, which was a very hard to choose.  I could have gone on and on.  Photographers are given credit where credit is due, but, even with a google search, I came up blank on who took many of these.  Also, if the information was given, I included where the door was found.

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» Tagged: Colombia, colorful, doors, France, Greece, India, Indiemade, Italy, Mexico, old, Santa Fe, Shadow Dog Designs, ShadowDogDesigns, Texas, Tibet, Turkey, Washington
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